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Thread: Challenges facing EV battery technology

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    Default Challenges facing EV battery technology

    I spotted this on ewetoob today, and found it rather enlightening .. from a materials stand-point.

    What did make me sit and think, was how many of said materials are here in the great brown down-under. Things like this always make me consider that Australia should be a wealthier nation than it is.


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    As far as the environmental aspect of the Unreliable electric everything world, It certainly raises some questions about the amount on mining that would have to be done and it's environmental impacts on it's own. Even in the vid, the vast areas of land shown that are being mined and the magnitudes of increase that would be required to fulfil the objectives is rather disturbing.
    I have seen the scale of the coal mines in the hunter valley of NSW and its pretty much surreal. I can only imagine the size of some of these mines.

    It takes Vast amounts of energy to mime all that material and subsequently subsequently process it before we get to my own next concern which the Vid did not address and is a Big problem now.

    Processing.

    The obviously Pro green electric Commentator ( whom is excellent and I watch his Vids) only touched on was the environmental detriment of the mining. What is a vastly Bigger concern is the processing and refining of much of that battery material. Much of it is done in the unstable 3rd world shitholes which do not have the environmental controls nor concern for the workers health and welfare.
    These processing facilities wouldn't be even thought of being looked at in the 1st due to the extreme toxicity and emissions they cause. It's like the dirty secret of the unreliables/ battery/ technology industries.
    A bigger problem than supply of some of these battery materials will be processing because so Many places are not going to have a bar of it and those that do will make the cost of complying with the much needed enviro concerns uneconomical.

    I wonder how much Co2 and globull warming all this mining, processing and transitioning to RE and electric cars etc is going to create and how many years of FF use that would amount to?


    Few ( balanced ) people would disagree that the hype of moving away from fossil fuels and going to the Renewable green practices are going to cause serious environmental Impact, damage and concerns in itself.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wotnot View Post
    I spotted this on ewetoob today, and found it rather enlightening .. from a materials stand-point.

    What did make me sit and think, was how many of said materials are here in the great brown down-under. Things like this always make me consider that Australia should be a wealthier nation than it is.


    I have been investing in local explorers for battery metals for over 3 years now.
    Our big advantage is that we can mine with minimal environmental impact compared to Congo and most other parts of the world, due to far less toxic by-products in our ores.
    Unfortunately nothing has happened. No off-take partners.

    The problem is that the battery factories want processed goods with 99% purity, not the ores.
    For the past 200 whatever years, Australia has only been good at scratching around in the ground and selling the ores overseas.
    The battery ready electrode materials requires manufacturing plants that cost billions.
    Nobody has the money here to invest that.

    Another issue is the rapid change of the required materials while the batteries get better and cheaper to produce.
    You start to construct a Cobalt mine now and 3 years later when it is finished the battery factories may have taken Cobalt out of the production line.
    Tesla is talking about it but that does not say all will follow.
    The reason is to reduce cost and not be dependent on the disgusting Congo mines, but using more Nickel could get that metal just as expensive.

    The big challenge I see is that Australia is incredibly slow and too far behind to make a dent in the massive battery revolution we are about to see. Not just EV but all power demands will be backed up with batteries.
    Our Governments do not show much support from a mining perspective that sounds like renewables, as it is coal mining and oil/petrol consumption all the way.
    However I heard a little bit of talk about it at least, coming from QLD.

    If our Gov could cough up a Billion for a battery metal mine/processing plant rather than for a dodgy Indian owned coal mine, that could kick start here a new industry and we become a world player in the battery revolution.
    Last edited by Uncle Fester; 27-10-20 at 02:54 PM.
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    Uncle Fester, am going to take you to task because you forgot to mention the two ex Gas Executives who now reside in the PM's office under the guise of Government Advisers to the PM
    No wonder the DH was proposing a new gas generator that would have been dearer than renewable s until he was jumped on
    There is a fine line between "Hobby" and "Madness"

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    Quote Originally Posted by allover View Post
    Uncle Fester, am going to take you to task because you forgot to mention the two ex Gas Executives who now reside in the PM's office under the guise of Government Advisers to the PM
    No wonder the DH was proposing a new gas generator that would have been dearer than renewable s until he was jumped on
    Our governments are never interested in saving money. Usually the most expensive option and tender is selected because somebody is always scratching somebody else's back in the club.

    However I don't oppose gas generators. They can be twice as efficient as coal and are cleaner.
    We need them in the transition period until batteries are capable to power Australia the whole night, which I don't see happening for another 10 years.
    They are definitely better than building new coal power stations.
    I have said for years that we should just replace the steam turbines in the existing ageing power plant infrastructure with gas turbines. Maybe even use still working steam turbines for the rest heat.
    Just need to get the gas there.
    A lot of smaller localised gas power stations would also make sense and that could also solve the expensive grid distribution issues that the power companies are complaining about.
    They could be 'mass produced' one size fits all modular jobs that would be then cheaper to produce and where you need more power you use more of these modules.

    We have a lot of Gas and it would be cheap if it weren't for corporate greed.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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